CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WVDN) – Thirteen in a row would have been nice for the Greenbrier East Lady Spartans, but unfortunately their 12-game winning streak came to an on end on Saturday, April 22, when they suffered a 6-1 setback to the George Washington Lady Patriots.
The Spartans’ offense was scoreless for the first five innings before scraping up a run in the sixth, as GW pitcher Alexis Adkins pitched well, and her defense played even better behind her.
After East (16-3) pitcher Josi Ervin struck out the first Patriot batter in the bottom of the first, Addie Armstrong came up and hit a single. The very next batter was Adkins, and she helped her own cause with a towering home run as GW built an early 2-0 lead.
The field was a little league field and typically smaller than normal, but Ervin said her team had the same chances.
“The field was a little league field, but with that being said we were playing on the same field they were and had all of the same opportunities. We just couldn’t get anything to go in the gap. We were hitting the ball just straight to them,” Ervin said.
That score remained the same until the fourth frame when the Pats’ Karalyne Wade hit a 1-2 pitch out of the park for a solo shot, and the Patriots went ahead 3-0 at that point.
East’s run in the sixth came by way of Taylor Boswell who ripped an RBI single off Adkins. The hit scored Lindsey Black who had gotten on base via a double. East cut the deficit to 3-1, but that would be as close as they would get due to what GW (14-8) did the in the bottom half.
Passion Holley hit a solo home run, and they got two more runs as the result of a couple of Spartan errors. East put a couple runners on in the seventh and tried to rally, but Adkins got Hailey Ervin to fly out and Josi Ervin to ground out as the streak became officially snapped.
However, losing a game and being humbled is not all negative.
“While it does suck to lose, it was honestly probably a good loss,” Josi Ervin stated.
“Now we don’t have the pressure of a 15-game win streak on us going into playoffs. We can also use to loss as motivation going through the rest of the season. I know I have things to work on personally, and as a team going into sectionals,” she explained.
Black (2-3, run) and Olivia Plybon (2-3) were the only Spartans with at least two hits. The Spartans had more total hits, 7-5, but East also committed three errors in the field compared to just one for GW.
Josi Ervin lasted the whole six innings on the mound. The lefty gave up five hits, six runs (4 earned) and struck out 10.
Adkins scattered seven hits over seven innings and struck out four.
The Spartans have another tough test against Independence this Tuesday evening, April 25.
